South Africa’s young chefs Catherine Sainsbury, Robert Zituta, Amaara Sulaiman, Lalana Santana Pillay, Marna Brandt and Macaela Ntuli won two top awards at the 2023 RCL Foods Young Chef & Baker Challenge.
Recently held in Durban in Umhlanga, the competition was a showcase of SA’s culinary excellence, where eighteen of SA’s top chefs under the age of 25 went head-to-head for coveted titles.
The chefs were required to prepare a starter, main course and dessert from a mystery basket of ingredients culminating in the announcement of the three winning teams of two by the panel of esteemed SA Chefs Association judges.
Sainsbury and Zituta from Silwood School of Cookery in Cape Town secured the first-place position winning a prize of R30 000, equally split between the two participants. The duo wowed the judges with their culinary creations, making them the reigning champions of this year’s competition.
The runner-up position was secured by Sulaiman and Pillay from Capsicum Culinary Studio in Durban who won R20 000. In the third-place spot was Brandt and Ntuli from Chefs Training & Innovation Academy in Gauteng who walked away with R15 000.
Speaking to IOL, Sainsbury said she was in complete shock when they were announced as winners.
“As they announced our names, my partner and I just looked at each other and started laughing. We could not believe it. It was almost a combination of disbelief, unbelievable joy, and an overwhelming amount of pride.
“One of the most incredible feelings I have experienced,” she said.
Pillay said: “I was beyond excited, I was also very shocked because as much as I was confident in our dishes, the other teams made incredible dishes as well. After all our hard work, hearing our names for second place was a dream come true.”
Third-place spot winner Ntuli said Marna and himself sat in the front row, which was nerve-wracking because his emotions were through the roof, while still trying to process if they had done well or not.
“Our names were called for the third prize and I was in shock that I did not even stand up in the beginning because I could not believe that after such a stressful competition our hard work, tears, laughter, and joy paid off.
“Thinking back I am still overwhelmed that it was our first competition and our first year in culinary school and I feel like it was a sign to not give up and to push through all the tough times.
“Overall, I feel grateful for my lectures, and family for being there throughout the whole process for support and competitions like this to help us realise our full potential in ourselves and to push us out our comfort zones to push to be greater,” Ntuli said.